Overview
The Hart House Permanent Collection had its beginnings in 1922 with the purchase of a work by A.Y. Jackson, one of the members of the then recently formed Group of Seven painters. A dominant force in the early 20th century history of Canadian art, the Collection encompasses now world-renowned works by members of the group and their wider circles across the country, including Tom Thomson, Emily Carr, Charles Comfort, David Milne and others, whose primary interests was in the representation of the Canadian landscape and wilderness.
In the mid-century century, the collection came to focus on the Montreal-based Automatists and the Toronto-based artists associated with Painters Eleven, whose works explored and promulgated abstraction.
Most recently, the Art Committee has focused on acquiring works by culturally diverse artists in a greater range of media, including artists who are at once engaged with but also counter prevailing canons and mythologies of identity and history in Canadian art. Inclusive of broader gender and cultural identities, as well as artistic forms, the current selection of works features Toronto-based artists such as Wendy Coburn, Erika DeFreitas, Jalani Morgan, Jon Sasaki, and Laurel Woodcock, as well as artists from across the country, including Stan Douglas, Ken Lum, Divya Mehra, Adrian Stimson, and many others.
Exhibition Resources
Monthly Docent Tours: Hart House Collection
The last Wednesday of the month, 2pm (during the academic year)
Meet at the Hart House Information HUB (7 Hart House Circle)
Visit the the Art Museum for more information
Our Supporters
Image: Jon Sasaki, Microbes Swabbed from a Palette Used by Tom Thomson, 2013, archival inkjet print. Purchased by the Hart House Art Committee, 2016.